Why Does the World Exist?

by Jim Holt (Liveright)

Beginning with the question “Why is there something rather than nothing?,” Holt guides the reader through pockets of deep thinking and erudition in the Western world, interviewing influential figures in such fields as theology, philosophy, physics, and literature. He is a spirited interlocutor and a deft explainer, patiently making sense of subjects ranging from Platonism to quantum mechanics, while nonetheless marvelling at their seemingly fantastical nature. “There is nothing I dislike more than premature intellectual closure,” he writes. This cheerful persistence—combined with anecdotes celebrating the thrills of travel, good food, and drink—helps to sweeten what is, finally, a sombre vision, in which reality may take the form of “infinite mediocrity” and “the life of the universe, like each of our lives, may be a mere interlude between two nothings.” ♦

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